How Trump Jr.’s ‘Transparency’ Erodes Trust With the Media

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

July 11, 2017

When Donald Trump Jr. abruptly posted a series of private emails on Tuesday — revealing that he had agreed to a meeting last year to hear damaging information about Hillary Clinton proffered by an intermediary for the Russian government — he offered his 1.1 million Twitter followers a pre-emptive explanation.

He posted the emails, Donald Trump Jr. wrote, “in order to be totally transparent,” zeroing in on an idea that quickly gained traction among his family members and their supporters in the news media. Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox News anchor, called him “smart to release emails.” President Trump, in his own statement, said he applauded his son’s “transparency.”

The word seemed intended to make the younger Mr. Trump appear more than willing to release private communications to clear up confusion.

The reality was more complicated.

About an hour before Donald Trump Jr.’s tweets, The New York Times informed his representatives that it had reviewed the emails and was planning to publish them on its website. The Times, which since Saturday had published several articles about the meeting last year, asked if the younger Mr. Trump wanted to comment for the article.

A representative for Donald Trump Jr. asked for time to respond. At 11 a.m., before the news organization had heard back, the younger Mr. Trump posted the emails himself.

The Times published its article minutes later, but Donald Trump Jr.’s move was cheered by some of the president’s supporters. They called it a clever way to upend a narrative emerging in the news media that Donald Trump Jr. — whose public explanations of the meeting had evolved several times since The Times revealed it — had not been forthcoming.

Still, political veterans from both parties said that while the pre-emptive publication might register as a short-term win, it could have long-term implications for the Trumps’ ability to shape coverage. Reporters seek comment ahead of an article’s publication to ensure a piece is fair; if the subject leaks the story to a competitor — or, in this case, leaks the information himself — it can be tough to re-establish trust.

“You get one mulligan to do it this way, and he just took it,” said Ari Fleischer, a press secretary to President George W. Bush.

Mr. Fleischer, now a Republican consultant and Fox News contributor, said the younger Mr. Trump’s actions on Tuesday represented a short-term strategy for a story that shows few signs of abating.

“He will not get that consideration from the press corps again,” Mr. Fleischer said. “The next time something comes up, reporters are going to jam him in, 10 seconds before they hit the ‘send’ button, because they won’t trust him not to do the same thing again.”

Mr. Fleischer said he had used that tactic once in his career, “and I regretted it.”

He added, “It helped me today, and it really lost me tomorrow.”

For his part, Donald Trump Jr. reposted supportive tweets from fans, including a woman identifying herself as Pam Besteder who imagined that the news media was frustrated that its scoop had been stolen. Mike Cernovich, a prominent right-wing commentator, wrote on Twitter: “Don Jr will have a tough news cycle and then life will go on. More sound and fury signifying nothing.”

The transparency argument carried over from Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter feed into the White House, where the president’s deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told reporters on Tuesday that the administration was willing “to be fully transparent and open and answer any questions through the correct process, whether that is through the special counsel or anything beyond that.”

Peter Alexander, an NBC News correspondent, asked Ms. Sanders if President Trump was aware that his son had released the emails only after he was informed that The Times was on the verge of publishing them.